If you had to add everything up and see what you had when you stood back and looked at the full scope of this race, the word that comes to mind is "awesome", and the next word?.....is "late", VERY late! With almost 130 entries, we had a great turn out and the fans came out too on this very windy but warm and wild night of racing. New procedures, and some bad timing, made for a very late finish we hope not to repeat ever again. We finished the last feature at 1:40 am and that, race fans, is just unacceptable.
The night started out with the presentation of our Hard Charger Award for our previous race, on March 24th. Troy Dow, who drives the #21 Junior Sportsman Champ in the "purple restrictor" division, was our first winner of this award for our 2001 season. Troy has competed in the Junior Novice Class and this year elected to drive in the new and ever growing Junior Sportsman Champ Class. Congratulations go out to Troy and his family for their efforts.
The races may have run long, but that did not stop the intensity of the competition. A great example of this intensity and excitement was the Junior 2 race. Ricky Stenhouse challenged leader Kevin Swindell, time and time again for the lead, making contact over and over, but Kevin held off Ricky's attempts to pass, each time. On the final lap Kevin and Ricky crossed the finish line side by side with Kevin winning by no more than a few inches. It was the closest finish I had ever seen at ARP.
It was not just the Junior 2 race that made this night special, as we had a lot of first time feature winners, as well as some of the veterans showing to us all what kart racing is all about.
First time winners at ARP in their classes, Brent Rowell, Jake Tucker, and Cody Burks. Way to go racers!
Congrats go out to our first Survivor Series Winner, Ty Jones, who battled the field to take the first win of the year for this race.
I don't know much else to say but if this is an indication of things to come then the 2001 season at Atoka will be awesome, simply awesome!!
I do have a note here tho, some of the pictures did not come out clear at all for some reason and I think I know why, and will try to correct this for our next race. Taking these digital pics is just one of the many tasks I have to make happen on race night and I need to move it up on my list of priorities. I will be happy to retake any pic that did not come out and once again I apologize for this problem.....Danny
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